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Drive More Leads with Trigger Words

Have you ever heard or read a word that you thought was absolutely abhorrent, such as “secretion” or “ointment”? Similarly, have you ever felt stressed after seeing the word “stress” too many times in one paragraph? This phenomenon is known as word aversion. Professor Paul Liberman describes it as “a feeling of intense, irrational distaste for the sound or sight of a particular word or phrase, not because its use is regarded as etymologically or logically or grammatically wrong, nor because it’s felt to be over-used or redundant or trendy or non-standard, but simply because the word itself somehow feels unpleasant or even disgusting.”

As explained by Liberman, the aversion to certain words don’t stem from its popularity, history, or amount of usage, but from its meaning. Even when the sentence is trying to convey the opposite of what the word says, the mentioning of the word itself is enough to make people feel uncomfortable. For example, if you’re reading an excerpt about why you shouldn’t feel stressed because stress will shorten your lifespan, what is your natural inclination? Most people would start worrying about being stressed! Certain trigger words can cause people to feel strong emotions, so many smart marketers tend to leverage this word aversion for their own benefits. As a lead generator, here’s how you can improve your marketing efforts by carefully picking and choosing your words.

Step #1: Identify Negative Trigger Words

First, slowly analyse your current content and identify the negative trigger words that you often use. We all make these mistakes from time to time simply out of conversational habit, but train yourself to quickly catch these words and take them out of your vocabulary altogether. The reason why it’s so important to avoid negative trigger words is because of the word aversion phenomenon, like we’ve mentioned earlier. When people hear words such as, “stress,” “worry,” “unhappy,” or “broke,” they naturally start to feel the very emotion that the word insinuates. Most of the time, Affiliates who use these words use them in an empathic context to relate to their customers. However, there is a more productive way to phrase your marketing content. We’ll explain this in detail in step 2.

Step #2: Practice Writing Positively

Rather than writing, “Don’t stress out about your holiday expenses,” a more productive way to write it would be, “Let us cover your holiday expenses!” Notice that you can essentially convey the same thought by replacing negative trigger words with positive ones. This simple trick makes all the difference when it comes to content marketing precisely because it’s so effective. In the same way people feel bad about their circumstances when they read words with a negative connotation, consumers can also feel happier and more secure when they read words with a positive connotation. Knowing this, you can be more intentional with what you write on your landing pages and advertisements to get more consumers to sign up for your service.

Step #3: A/B Test for Optimal Results

Finally, the last step is the most crucial part: never stop A/B testing your marketing content! Words are just building blocks; you can always build something better the more you study and practice. The key to creating optimal content for your future advertisements and campaigns lies in split testing. For the clearest and most effective split test results, only apply one change at a time, so you’ll know what works best for your target audience. For example, a smart lead generator would only change the headline of an ad while keeping the images and design the same in order to truly test which copy works best. If the images are also different, there would be too many factors to consider during the evaluation process. Try to only apply one noticeable change each time you perform a split test.

For more information on how you can drive more leads with content marketing, sign up with T DOT UK. We offer exceptional online help and support for our Affiliates. You will never run out of helpful resources with us.